Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Hossain said Bangladesh will permanently stop broker networks that divert patients from public hospitals to private clinics. He made the announcement Wednesday morning at the Mother Language Institute in Segunbagicha, Dhaka, during the release of a study on gaps in the public health system. The study was jointly conducted by the Power and Participation Research Centre and the Health Economics Unit.

The minister said practices in which staff hold public hospital duties while directing patients to nearby clinics for tests, surgery or commissions must end and will be monitored. He also alleged that unrealistic tender conditions are used to restrict competition. The research covered 22 public health institutions across eight administrative divisions and found an overall budget utilization rate of 85 percent in fiscal year 2024-25.

Hossain said a foreign company’s dialysis contract in Dhaka and Chattogram will not be renewed when it expires in November. The government plans to buy dialysis machines from its own sources and establish 50-bed centres at medical college hospitals and 10-bed centres at district hospitals. A pilot programme using AI-equipped kit boxes for health workers in 10 upazilas and 90 wards is due to begin within three months.